OA Market Overview

Market Value and Projected Growth

Although market value for scholarly journals stands at $10 billion, open access market accounts for $500 million [6]. In addition, 50% of the articles published in the year 2013 were from top five publishers. The growth rate of OA market was estimated between 10% to 15% per annum in 2016 [6]. In terms of global share of number of articles, gold-APC, noAPC and hybrid account for 9.6%, 4.6%, and 2.4% respectively. Gold-APC journals compete in a market that is not only small but also driven by the buyer preferences [6]. However, in subscription journal market, the situation almost remains unaffected by the prices and commercial publishers dominate the landscape. In addition, ‘flipping’ of traditional journals to full OA remains low. This is substantiated by the fact that profit margins for some commercial publishers remain as high as 30% [6].

The growth of OA market faces challenges due to following reasons:

1.

2. Perceived low quality of OA journals: Rise in predatory journals and often low quality/high acceptance rate of low-threshold journals, affect the author’s decision [7]. Variable APCs: The APC market was valued at $182 million in 2012 and was estimated to grow 3.

4. at 34%. Average APCs for gold- APC, no-APC and hybrid were estimated at $1418, $2097, and $2727 respectively [8]. Academic bias: Often academic bias against OA journals due to perceived reputation of traditional journals becomes a roadblock. Double Dipping: Often hybrid journals charge not only subscription fee but also publication fee. This has resulted in usage of funds for APCs

of full OA journals or offsetting agreements.

Growth in immediate OA content (Johnson R, Fosci M, Chiarelli A, Jubb M, Pinfield S. Towards a Competitive and Sustainable OA Market in Europe - A Study of the Open Access Market and Policy Environment [Internet]. 2017 [cited 20 July 2017]. Available from: https://blogs.openaire.eu/wp-content/ uploads/2017/03/OA-market-report-28Final-13-March201729-1.pdf